Pulled noodle (or biang biang noodle) is a famous noodle dish from northwest part of China, and it’s easily my all-time favorite noodle dish.
There are a few restaurants that I go to when I crave for a delicious bowl of biang biang noodle but unfortunately they’re all about 1hr drive from where I live.
So in the past week I tried to make this dish from scratch. After 4 iterations I’ve finally come up with a version that I’m happy with (my bar for this noodle dish is pretty high). I’m writing the recipe down here together with a few things I found critical, before I forget the details.
Credit
I want to give a shout-out to amazing home cooks on youtube. These are the videos I watched in order to get started.
- Chinese Cooking Demystified: Dapanji with hand pulled Kudaimian noodle
- Amanda Taste: Chili pepper oil pulled noodle
Ingredient
- all purpose flour * 125 g (3/4 cup)
- low gluten flour * 125 g (1 cup)
- kosher salt * 3~5 g (roughly a pinch)
- water * 115~120 ml (1/2 cup)
Prepare the dough
- mix flour with salt well and pour water little by little to create a dough
- knead the dough thoroughly for about 2 mins
- wrap the dough with food wrap and let it sit (in room temperature) for about half an hour
- unwrap the dough and keep on kneading for about 5 mins
- form dough into a log shape, cut evenly into 8 pieces (use 4 / 6 if you prefer longer / thicker noodles) and form each into a log shape
- drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (or any kind of cooking oil) on a plate
- roll the dough on the plate and place them evenly
- wrap the plate with a piece of food wrap and let the dough sit in room temperature for a hour or two
Pulling the noodle
The following few steps will be better explained by watching the videos I linked above. Amanda / Chinese Cooking Demystified does a way better job than me explaining these steps.
- boil a pot of water (salted gently). we’ll need to toss the pulled noodle in right after pulling
- flatten the dough to a long elliptical shape (use a rolling pin or gently pound with your palm)
- indent the dough with a chopstick in the middle along the major axis
- pick up the dough and start pulling: one hand on each end and pull slowly
- toss into the boiling water. the noodle will be ready in 1~2 mins. do the same for all pieces of dough
Extra Credit: Chili Oil Pulled Noodle
You’re literally one step away from my favorite noodle dish.
- put all toppings on the noodle and pour about 2 tablespoon of sizzling oil
Stack all toppings and make sure the sizzling oil goes through the stack! Stir well and enjoy!
Toppings:
- 2~3 clove of garlic(minced)
- some chopped green onion
- chili flakes / powder
- a pinch of Szechuan pepper powder
- a pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of Chinese dark vinegar (optional)
Summary
It’s not a hard technique. If I can figure it out, you can do it too. A few key points from my failed attempts:
- Flour: half general purpose half low gluten. The reason being general purpose has a bit too much gluten that makes the dough too elastic. I found it very difficult to pull a long & thin noodle with such dough
- Room temperature: You can sit the dough in the fridge overnight or even for a day, just make sure leave it in room temperature enough time before processing them. cold / icy dough is much harder to pull.
- Rolling pin: if you’re planning on making this often, get one. it’s a game changer for me.
